Rebecca Scott-Martin- is UFIT’s own White Collar Boxing fighter of the night!

On Saturday 11 October, Becky went toe to toe with her opponent under the lights in front of 1500 people and not only won her bout but also claimed title of fighter of the night at the Suntec City. Her win was the result of a massive amount of training; hard work and dedication by not only her, but her UFIT coach Lawrence Cartwright as well. Read her training schedule and diet plan in the lead up to the fight here…..

3 months ago, Becky had no prior boxing experience. An interest in dancing whilst growing up gave Becky an edge in her boxing training- the ability to learn routines and combinations with ease, as she had experience learning choreography from dance classes. Her dance training also gave her an edge with her fast feet movements around the ring. Becky had previously done a lot Olympic lifting, so she already had al lot of strength and power. Once her technique was perfected during training her punch was delivered with stinging speed and crushing power.

Becky’s Training schedule

July and August

Becky’s 1st training sessions were all shadow boxing which is done in front of the mirror, without pads and gloves. She would do this every day for 1 hour.

Towards the end of July, Becky submerged herself into the world of boxing with 4 days in Thailand at a dedicated boxing gym. When she returned, Becky started on the pads with her UFIT trainer Lawrence. Lawrence said “Becky returned from Phuket with fluid movements and big improvements in her boxing technique”

Becky’s biggest hurdles to overcome were with her timing of head movements and reactions to punches. So to overcome this, Lawrence, started to throw punches at her and she would have to slip (dodge and roll) to work on improving her upper body mobility. Plenty of time she was getting caught and took a few blows to the face, but as Lawrence comments “she soon learnt”. And learn she did, if you saw Becky’s bout, you will know, her head movements were perfect!!

During her training Becky perfected slipping her opponents right hand and dropping into the body for a hook. Again this was put into practice on the night, and gave her a big advantage against her opponent.

Boxing specific fitness training; involving Short sharp intense rounds working for no longer than 1 minute at a time with a short breaks over multiple sets of 20mins

Example: in the UFIT studio lane, Becky would work on 1 combination that involved:

# 4 shots repeated 5 times

# 1 boxing combination

# 1 burpee

# 80m sprint

# Light jog back

# Then straight back in to repeat this cycle 3 times

Becky experienced training outside in 30degree heat, with a mouth guard in and head gear on. Lawrence would say “Train uncomfortable and fight easy”. Tough mantra Lawrence, but something Becky now attests to!!

Last 6 weeks before the fight

The last 4 weeks of Becky’s training involved more and more sparring sessions.

UFIT coaches Akmal and Nathan who also had boxing experience sparred against Becky to get her more comfortable with the real life boxing fight scenario. They were more of a similar height to Becky and focused on scenarios that might actually take place during her fight.

Becky continued to work on a lot of head movement to ensure she had fast reactions to the punches and ensuring her body knew where to move next. As previously mentioned, slipping into the body was crucial training for Becky.

2 weeks before the fight

Sparring decreased

Fitness was at an all time high

Sprint training every day

Boxing session every day with fluid match like scenarios. 2mins of constant punches involving lots of head movement, with great technique.

Last week before the fight

Monday and Tuesday

At this point, Beckys was not going to get any fitter and you needed to prevent injury as much as possible. However she was still training very day with hard sprint sessions

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before the fight

Ticking over, Becky kept her mind fresh of what she needed to do with the fight

Still, she trained very day but slowed intensity right down

Sessions would involve:

#Skip 20mins

# Shadow boxing for around 20mins

Night Before the fight

Becky and Lawrence worked on scenarios on what could come at her at the fight. Lawrence would throw 1 single shot at Becky and Becky would react, slip and come back with 2 or three shots.

2 x 2min rounds with Lawrence on the pads

last supper

Sleep

Morning off the fight

Becky had a big meal. Involving complex carbs, such as oats for slow releasing energy

Mentally prepared herself with visualization of the fight

The Fight

The bout involved 3 x 2min rounds with a 1min break each round.

Becky didn’t give her opponent Sim room to breath and the bout was non stop work for Becky. You could see how much fitness training Becky put in to punch for 6mins non stop.

Becky won the fight unanimously with all 3 judges scored Becky winning every round.

Not only did Becky win her bout but she was fighter of the night as well. Lawrence comments that “she won this because her skill and technique was un comparable to all the other fighters and had a bigger variety of shots-ie punching to the head and the body”